Border control policy in Germany triggers traffic congestion, rising complaints

China

Border control policy in Germany triggers traffic congestion, rising complaints

2024-09-17 16:34 Last Updated At：23:57

Germany's decision to tighten border controls since Monday has caused serious traffic congestion and delays for vehicles heading from the Polish side to Germany, which also triggered growing complaints from the public.

The new measures affected Germany's borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Poland. This temporary control measure will last six months and may be extended after its expiration.

In the Polish border city of Slubice, vehicles heading from the Polish side to Germany began to line up in long queues and move slowly on Monday local time, while vehicles heading from the German side to Poland are unimpeded.

The German government said that the implementation of this control measure is to limit illegal immigration, deal with potential terrorist threats and cross-border crimes, and protect its national security. However, this measure has caused great inconvenience to the lives of people on the Polish side. Many Polish residents need to go to Germany to work and study every day, and the serious traffic congestion has made life more difficult for them.

"Because there are so many illegal immigrants trying to enter Germany, initially Germany implemented controls at the main border entrances, but now the control measures have been extended to the whole country. Such restrictions are necessary to a certain extent, but they have caused a lot of freight trucks to be congested at the highway ports. Now there is congestion at the port bridge in our city, and people have begun to complain," said Daniel Malecki, a resident in Slubice.

U.S. Fed slashes rates by 50 basis points, first rate cut in four years

2024-09-19 02:22 Last Updated At：03:17

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday slashed interest rates by 50 basis points amid cooling inflation and a weakening labor market, marking the first rate cut in over four years.

"The Committee has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent, and judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are roughly in balance," the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the central bank's policy-setting body, said in a statement.

"In light of the progress on inflation and the balance of risks, the Committee decided to lower the target range for the federal funds rate by 1/2 percentage point to 4-3/4 to 5 percent," the FOMC said.

This signals the start of an easing cycle. Starting from March 2022, the Fed had raised rates consecutively for 11 times to combat inflation not seen in forty years, pushing the target range for the federal funds rate up to between 5.25 percent and 5.5 percent, the highest level in over two decades.

After maintaining rates at the high level for over a year, the Fed's tight monetary policy faced pressure to pivot due to the easing of inflationary pressures, signs of weakening in the job market, and slowing economic growth.